InfoSeeking

InfoSeeking Lab is situated in the University of Washington iSchool. The lab is directed by Dr. Chirag Shah, and includes iSchool and Computer Science faculty, as well as several PhD, Masters, and undergraduate students. The funding for the lab--more than 3 million dollars so far--has come from federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Smithsonian Institution, as well as private organizations such as the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), Amazon, Google, and Yahoo. The lab engages in research and education activities in the larger fields of Information and Data Sciences, with a focus on information seeking/retrieval/behavior and social media. Current topics of interest include extracting search intentions, prediction and recommendations in exploratory search processes, big data analytics with social media, behavioral analytics with mobile and wearable technology, collaborative information seeking, and social/community-based question-and-answering (Q&A). Lab members have achieved great success both nationally and internationally. Organizations including the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) and the Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval (SIGIR) have recognized InfoSeekers' many achievements. A host of peer-reviewed journals continue to publish the lab's groundbreaking research. We are proud to be Seekers!